I see the natives are restless. Yes, the Oregon governor is calling for a "solutions table" though he didn't use the word (probably some silly calculated political decision there, dare not offend those who work daily to kill off the last remaining wild salmon of the Columbia/Snake) And yes, I believe this is a positive move toward saving the wild salmon and wild steelhead of the Columbia/Snake. Do not misread this and think I am going to come out against Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, I am not. Quite frankly, while he is behind the curve to actually save wild salmon and steelhead, he is far ahead of the curve for politicians who might have some influence in the saving of wild salmon and wild steelhead and for that he is to be commended.

But I'm a journalist, deep down to the bone, and I read things for what they are and not what they could be. He didn't say anything about breaching four lower Snake River dams and that is the only way we are saving the wild salmon and wild steelhead of the Snake River Basin.

And again he did go a long way toward getting the ball rolling, which sadly has to be a step in the process. So, again, kudos, I like this guy for what he has done to date. Again, though, he did not mention breaching dams, instead he spoke of returning rivers to their natural state. "We can do better if, over the next year, our region can work out how to manage our Columbia as a river rather than simply preparing for yet another visit to the courtroom."

Again, don't get me wrong, I love the timetable (didn't care for the buttering up of the BPA), over the next year, but here's the problem, we've got the Bonneville Power Adminstration, Corps of Engineers, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter and a whole lot of other people who claim to be the embodiment of the silent majority who don't mind putting some flow back in the Columbia/Snake provided that flow is at a higher elevation and a whole lot slower than the river at its natural state. And then you've got these people who are or were on the side of salmon advocates who will espouse the virtues of spill, and they won't share that spill doesn't get us to a viable smolt to adult return rate (SAR between 2-6 percent for eight consecutive years). So a possible "solution", which won't be a solution at all, could be damming a whole lot more rivers in Idaho, where Butch runs the roost, with the great "promise" of cool and plentiful water to spill for salmon coming from Idaho to save Idaho's wild fish (as it simultaneously kills off millions of other Idaho native fish in new slackwater reservoirs where Idaho Power can finally tell wind power producers to stick it where the sun don't shine).

If you don't think that the BPA, Corps and Butch and others aren't going to try to angle these talks (if they ever happen) in that very direction, you seriously need to stop smoking the Humboldt County cash crop.

So there is the danger, as I want you all going in with eyes wide open. There is a "solution" that won't save the salmon. Now the Oregon governor also said that all sides would have to give up something. Well, salmon advocates, what do you have that is worth something? Listen, if they, and this is a huge if, if they decide to take the Oregon governor's bait and come to the table we won't call "solutions," they are going to come for one reason and one reason alone. Beyond getting you to agree to their higher elevation Columbia/Snake and America's second great era of dam building, they will come for one real reason, to strip you (salmon advocates all) of your right to sue them in court when their promises fail to save wild salmon and wild steelhead.

You have so many pairs of pants you have won off these guys in court it ain't even funny. If they decide to come to the table (and remember, why would they since they can apparently ignore the orders of federal judges), they will come to strip you of your right to sue them in court over yet another failed effort to save the salmon.

That will be the only compelling reason they come to this table we won't call "solution." And I doubt they will come to the table until some other federal judge properly places those presiding over the extinction of Columbia/Snake wild salmon and steelhead under his iron thumb.

What have we learned this year? BPA, Corps, NOAA, et. al. don't have to follow the orders of a federal judge who later retires. Congressmen from eastern Washington and somewhere in California arrived here from a time machine from the 1950s (or earlier) and the forces for salmon extinction think they can save them by raising the level of all of our water by damming up more and more rivers and then managing the flow for optimal salmon survival.

When, and I am being serious, when has any government agency or any agency managed any river better than nature or god depending on your persuasion? Let me ask you another question, you do realize that the word manage is in itself an admission of continued failure, right?

To sum up, it is great that the Oregon governor is calling for a "solutions table" without actually using the lingo of those damn tree huggers, but if the other side bites, this is about to get serious and you need to be aware of that and you need to realize that your right to sue is the only thing keeping these people from driving the final extinction nail into the coffin of wild salmon and wild steelhead of the Snake River Basin. So, when you give that right up, it had better be for something that includes the breaching of four lower Snake River dams and a promise for those dams to never again be rebuilt and a promise that the lower Snake shall from this day forward always remain wild and free. If you don't at the very least get that, then you'd be a fool to sign away your right to sue these guys over and over again until they get it.

The only time they are going to beat you in court, is when their plan to save the wild salmon and wild steelhead includes the breaching of those lower Snake River dams. I hope you never forget that very important fact. They can't beat you any other way beyond running out the clock on wild salmon and wild steelhead (their current strategy) making your lawsuit moot.

Yes, be happy, somebody who won a popularity contest also wants a solutions table, though he won't call it that, but be very wary of where this might go if you get too exuberant about the fact that those you keep beating in the courtroom finally decide they will talk. You are in the driver seat as long as you realize it.

I am sure that many of you interested in saving wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia/Snake river basins have already read the very good (though depressing) accurate account of the true story of our fish runs posted at Save Our Wild Salmon August 28 (here) by Pat Ford the executive director of Save Our Wild Salmon.

If you haven't I suggest you click on the link above and read it, because it says one of the things I have been saying over and over in many different ways on this blog and that is regardless of what you see in the media about these recent fish runs they are in fact poor. Yes, fish runs are better than they were in the 1990s, but that is not the bar our fish runs must meet.

The fact that many of you can now go out and catch a hatchery fish does not a recovery make.

I also wanted to point out something I read in a draft report from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game on the management of the state's fisheries for the years 2013-2018. Actually, similar words are used on many Idaho drainages, but there isn't any action plan by IDFG and the state of Idaho to rectify the most pressing problem for our wild salmon and steelhead runs. I have made bold the most important take home points from this draft report and I only included my local stream, but again there are similar descriptions for other drainages throughout the report.

From the South Fork Salmon River Drainage portion of the draft plan for Idaho fisheries management

"Anadromous fish species (Chinook salmon, steelhead trout) have access to most of the drainage. Historically, the steelhead spawning run exceeded 3,000 fish. The South Fork Salmon River historically supported the largest summer Chinook run in the state of Idaho.Salmon fishing was a major economic resource in the SFSR prior to 1965, when anglers harvested 1,700-4,000 salmon annually. Steelhead anglers harvested 750-800 fish per year. These runs have dwindled considerably since then, and run sizes are about one-tenth of their former abundance. The seasons were closed in 1965 for Chinook and in 1968 for steelhead. The decrease in numbers of SFSR Chinook and steelhead were caused by two major problems: 1) logging and road construction activities created unstable soil conditions in the SFSR that have damaged the aquatic habitat, and 2)serious fish passage problems and increased mortality caused by construction of hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake and Columbia rivers.The SFSR is one of only four drainages in the Columbia Basin that supports populations of wild, native steelhead trout classified as B-run.These fish are predominantly large steelhead, which spend two or three years in the ocean, compared to the smaller A-run steelhead which inhabit much of the rest of the Salmon River drainage. Preservation of this native gene pool is a high priority. Following harvest closures on cutthroat trout (1985) and bull trout (1994), and cessation of hatchery trout stocking (1993), steelhead parr became the targeted fish harvested under general bag limits. This instigated the change to a drainage-wide catch-and-release regulation, implemented in 1998."

It is true that the first major problem the wild salmon and steelhead of the South Fork of the Salmon River endured had to do with some very badly built logging roads and some rain on snow events that caused a great deal of sediment to inundate the river in the 1960s. That sediment has been somewhat pushed downstream over the years, though currently the river also has a lot of new sediment from 2008 (aftermath of 2007 catastrophic forest fires) that is also working its way down stream. But the biggest problem for all Snake River Basin wild salmon and steelhead, including the South Fork fish, remains the migratory habitat, which no longer exists in its natural form due to four lower Snake River dams that have created four large slackwater reservoirs that kill juvenile fish in a number of ways and also stress and kill adult fish.

The point I wanted to get at with the inclusion of the Idaho Fish and Game draft report is that there is no mention of any effort this state is going to make in the next five years to rectify the problem that is the primary culprit to these fish runs ever recovering. That remains the dams.

Pointing out a problem and not working to resolve it is pointless. You may say, as many do, that what can Idaho or its Fish and Game do about federal dams in Washington state? They could join the groups and people working to replace the power of those dams, thereby making them more obsolete than they are today.

How the electricity that comes into your home was made should not matter beyond whether it was produced cleanly and efficiently. Those four dams only make 4 percent of the energy in the Pacific Northwest, and we have been adding wind energy sources like mad over the past 15 years. We are beginning to tap into the never-ending supply of energy produced by wave action along the coast of Oregon. At some point, and I hope soon, we must not look at these energy sources as the BPA does or as other power entities do, as additions or nuisances and instead as replacements for those dams. The Lewiston Port is not a success and it will never be a success from a shipping standpoint. They've had several decades to prove otherwise and have not. Irrigation from these reservoirs is a non-issue, extra pipe can reach a free flowing lower Snake River and water for irrigation can be accessed. People will recreate as much on a free flowing lower Snake River as they do on those reservoirs, actually more, but the recreation element is also a non-issue. It comes down to power production, as it always has, and we have already replaced the power those dams produce. Let's keep adding more to the grid so those institutions that preside over the extinction of our wild fish can see the light that has been shining for several years now.

A solutions table has to be convened, this impasse has to be breached. Our wild salmon and steelhead won't tread water for us forever.

I have included both draft reports for Idaho Fish and Game fisheries 2013-2018 below, so you may read them and see what, if anything, the state of Idaho plans to do to rectify what is the most pressing problem for our state's dwindling wild runs of salmon and steelhead.

Thank you for coming to my blog about restoring wild salmon and steelhead in the Snake River Basin. At times, I may write something that is either controversial or something you do not agree with (this being America and all). In no way, does something I have written that you disagree with make you a victim. You are reading my opinion and if you disagree, that's not earth shattering to me. I expect that you might disagree. Disagreement is not something to be avoided. It's how we can learn. We learn by making mistakes and by listening to each other and figuring out where there are holes in our worldview. And everyone has gigantic gaping holes in their worldviews, including me and you. That being said, we continue to destroy our world. We need to stop doing that. You may argue jobs are important, and you are correct, they are important. However, our world and the health of our environment is far more important than some temporary job that your corporate master will take from you the second they see a better bottom line somewhere else. Consider that fact as we continue to destroy our world and as you read this blog. It ain't about you, yet then again it is about you in that it is about all of us and how we the destroyers of our planet have to wake up and start restoring what we've destroyed. Thank you again for reading, I really do hope something you read here is thought provoking. I also hope that you will join me in the hope that this will be the generation that saves wild salmon and steelhead in the Snake River Basin rather than the generation that watched as they passed into history.

Author

Michael Wells is an award winning journalist and photographer living in Idaho. He can be reached at salmonblog AT yahoo DOT com.